Foolproof sketching & painting techniques for beginners

Illustrator and craft designer Kuramae uses perspective drawing techniques and a light, cartoonish style to demonstrate how to draw common household objects, break them into their component shapes, and finish the drawings with watercolors. The book includes simple step-by-step instructions that explain how shapes distort as their positions change, relative to the viewer. At times, the explanations of three-dimensional drawing lose some legibility when translated onto the two-dimensional page, but a novice would still be able to follow along and learn a significant amount about how to create drawings using single-point or two-point perspective. The book is organized into chapters on drawing box shapes, cylinders, and shapes, and each section builds on the one before. The final part addresses common tools and techniques for working with watercolors; it would have been more logically placed at the front of the book, as the instruction regarding watercolors within each project is somewhat thin. VERDICT Despite a few flaws, this is an eminently usable manual that will appeal to budding cartoonists and those looking to add 3D to their work.--Rebecca Brody